Printing device



Oct. 25, 1966 YOW-JIUN HU 3,280,739

PRINTING DEVICE Filed Oct. 2, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet l Ii lVENTOR Yow- J \LlN Hu.

flq gvzmw ATTORNEY Oct. 25, 1966 yawu 3,280,739

PRINTING DEVICE Filed Oct. 2, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 PRINTING DEVICE Filed Oct. 2. 1964 '7 Sheets-Sheet 5 YOWJIUN HU Oct. 25, 1966 PRINTING DEVICE '7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Oct. 2. 1964 1966 vow-.uuw HU 3,280,739

PRINTING DEVICE Filed Oct. 2, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 YOW-JIUN HU Oct. 25, 1966 PRINTING DEVICE 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Oct. 2. 1964 Oct. 25, 1966 YOW-JIUN HU 3,280,739

PRINTING DEVICE 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 Filed 001:. 2, 1964 FIG.9

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1234mm '05 JOHN DOE [I MIAMI BEACH '04 MIAMI, USA

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United States Patent 3,280,739 PRINTING DEVICE Yow-Jiun I-Iu, Alexandria, Va., assignor to Famngton Business Machines Corporation, Springfield, Va., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Oct. 2, 1964. Ser. No. 401,273 10 Claims. (Cl. 101-297) This invention relates to a device for printing indicia such as names, addresses and account numbers on sales slips, documents or the like by means of typographical plates of a kind suitable for use as identification tokens and adapted to be carried by individual customers.

The-objects of the invention are to provide a printing device which is simple and economical in construction, which produces clean cut and uniform printing with inexpensive plates, which operates conveniently and with little effort, and which is durable and reliable in us'e.

Another object is to provide a method for the production of a curved platen utilized in the present invention.

Briefly, the device has a printing bed to receive sales slips or the like, with one or more seats for printing plates in combination with a carriage assembly comprising a curved platen, an eccentric cam, and being controlled in a predetermined manner for rocking the platen against the slips to provide an improved print quality transfer, whereas the machine and platen are uniquely constructed to provide easy maintenance and/ or replacement of the platen. Further provisions enable the machine to operate automatically for a single imprint cycle at a time, and allow a tray upon which the printing bed is located to be moveably disposed relative to the carriage assembly for further convenience and improvements.

For the purpose of illustration, a typical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings in which FIGURE 1 is an isometric view of the printing machine.

FIGURE 2 illustrates a section of the printing machine taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1 with the tray 51 having been pushed inwardly.

FIGURE 3 is a section of the machine taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 2 with the carriage assembly 31 having been rocked into a position slightly displaced from the printing bed.

FIGURE 4 shows a cut-away fragmentary View disclosing the lowering of guide means 45 and rotation of the carriage assembly 31 of the machine.

FIGURE 5 is a bottom view of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 illustrates a section of the printing machine taken on the line 6-6 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 7 shows a top view of FIGURE 2 with the motor 24 removed.

FIGURE 8 is a schematic diagram relating to the movement of the carriage assembly 31.

FIGURE 9 shows a further embodiment of the carriage assembly which may be employed in the present invention.

FIGURE 10 is a sectional view taken on line 1010 of FIGURE 9.

FIGURE 11 is an identification token.

FIGURE 12 shows yet another embodiment of the carriage assembly which may be employed in the present invention.

The embodiment herein shown for the purpose of illustration comprises printing machine having a base 21, see FIGURES 1 and 2, with an upstanding wall member 22 to which a rigid plate 23 is secured for mounting a power unit generally indicated at 24, which power unit may be of the electric or pneumatic type. The drive shaft 25 of the power unit is directly connected to an eccentric shaft 26 supported at one end by wall member 22 and at its other end by a wall member 27 which is spaced parallel 3,280,739 Patented Oct. 25, 1966 with and attached to wall member 22 by way of wall separators 28 and 29.

A carriage assembly generally referred to as 31, compris'es a rocker arm 32 and a bushing 33 having been force fitted within a circular opening in the rocker arm 32, whereby the opening defined by the bushing 33 is adapted to be loosely fitted about the eccentric shaft 26, for easy rotation of the arm thereabout. Spacers 34 are provided to prevent the rocker arm from lateral movement along the eccentric shaft. A platen 35 is snugly mounted on the bottom of rocker arm 32 by providing guide grooves 36 in the arm to be compatible with an extension 37 of the platen, thus allowing the platen to be easily replaced. The platen could be of metal, plastic or of some porous material impregnated with ink such as the platen disclosed in US. Patent No. 2,620,730, and if desired the printing surface of the platen could be partially relieved as shown in FIGURE 4 so that any unwanted information on a printing plate or elsewhere in the printing field would not be recorded. The printing surface 38 of the platen 35 has a curved configuration to be hereinafter disclosed in more detail.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a bearing 39 (see FIGURES 2-4) integral with a plate member 41 is attached above the surface of platen by screw means 42 to a recessed portion 43 of the carriage assembly, for limited movement in a vertical slot 44 formed by a guide member 45, which guide member is attached to a screw 47 and secured to an indentation 46 in wall member 27 by the frictional co-action of screw 47 and guide member with the wall 27 when the screw is tightened thereto. Upon loosening of screw 47, the screw and attached guide member 45 may be lowered toward the base 21 by way of elongated slot 48 as illustrated in FIGURE 4, thereby freeing the carriage assembly 31, when displaced at substantially its furtherrnost position from a printing bed, from the guide slot 48, thus allowing the carriage assembly 31 to be manually rotated for facilitating maintenance of the machine in replacement or cleaning of the platen member 35. If desired, the ends of the platen may be additionally secured to the rocker 32 by way of a fiathead screw 49.

Beneath the carriage assembly 31 and mounted on base 21 is tray 51, wherein there is positioned an anvil 52 defining a portion of a printing bed disposed to receive an embossed customer identification token or printing plate 53. There is also provided adjacent :anvil 52 a printing plate 54 for aflixing thereto station identification information such as the station address, assigned number for recording purposes, etc., whereby both the identification token 53 on anvil 52 and printing plate 54, are employed to support a document or sales slip 55 upon which an imprint is to be made. The identification token 53 may be of the construction shown in Patents 2,620,729 or 3,034,430, being formed with raised characters. To one side of printing plate 54 there is located a variable numbering wheel 56 for recording additional information such as the date of a transaction. The rim portions 57 and 58 of tray 51 are utilized for properly positioning the sales slip 55 within the tray, whereas on either side of anvil 52, the yieldable biased members 59 and rim 61 are employed for properly locating the identification token 53. The far side 62 of anvil 52 is indented allowing the identification token to be readily tipped for convenient removal from the printing machine. It is noted that the left hand edge 57 of tray 51 may be extended outwardly from the tray by way of extensible rods 63, as shown in FIGURE 1, for accommodating large size sales slips.

As disclosed in FIGURE 3, tray 51 is movable with respect to the carriage assembly 31 of the imprinting machine via a pair of parallel guide tracks 64 in base 21 receiving the protracted portions 65 of tray 51. The rear of the imprinting machine, as illustrated in FIGURES 2 and 7, is provided with a compression spring 66 wound about a holder 67 mounted on the tray 51 by angle support 68, the spring being guided in an indentation 69 of the base 21 and the free edge of the spring being fixed to the base by screw 71. The spring 66 is biased in the direction shown by the arrow to force the tray 51 outwardly in a document receiving or removal position, however to limit the outward movement of the tray a recess '72 is terminated at point 73 in the tray 51 to engage the cap of screw 71 as shown in FIGURE 5. In tray 51 and complementary with the angled underside of anvil 52 is a wedge 74 having a width which is substantially narrower than that of anvil 52, which anvil occupies the full width of the cut-out in tray 21 within which it is seated. Abutting the front end of Wedge 74 there is-shown in FIGURE an anvil support screw 75 threadably transferable through passageway 76 in a stair-like member 77 which is pivotable about the screw 78 fixed to tray 51. It is readily observed that by adjusting the anvil support screw 75 abutting Wedge 74, anvil 52 may be raised or lowered to regulate the distance of the identification token '53 from the platen 35 to achieve a proper print quality on the document 55.

It is additionally noted that if, for some reason, the carriage assembly 31 becomes jammed during printing, the operator by rotation of the stair-like member 77 about the pivotable screw 76 to the position 77 (as shown in FIGURE 1), may disengage the anvil support screw 75.

from the wedge 74 allowing anvil 52 to be lowered for relieving the jam. The stair-like member 77 is held in its normal position by frictional engagement with Wedge 74.

The motor 24 is connected to a normally open snapaction switch 79, as illustrated in FIGURE 1, which switch circuit is closed to activate motor 24 when biased pin 81 is forced inwardly as shown in FIGURE 7, the

snap-action switch being electrically connected to a further switch 82, thence to a voltage source by way of leads 83. Pin 81 of snap-action switch 79 is situated so as to be forced inwardly by the action against spring 88 of the angle support 68 on tray 51 when the tray is pushed inwardly towards the carriage assembly 31. The apparatus which locks the tray 51 after it has been pushed forward for an imprinting function and also releases the tray thereafter for removal of the printing plate 53 and document 55, is shown in FIGURES 2 and 6, comprising a pear-shaped cam 84 fixed to the eccentric shaft 26 to be rotatable therewith as the carriage assembly is rocked about the eccentric shaft 26, whereby the top portion 01 pear-shaped cam 84 will be at its uppermost position when the carriage assembly 31 is at its furthermost position from the printing bed. A slide 85 slideable up and down the side of wall member 22 by way of an elongated slot 86 is guided through the rigid plate 23. The top of the slide 85 has a rod 87 protruding therefrom to coact with the pear-shaped cam 84 for vertical up and down movement of the slide whereas the bottom of slide 85 is integral with a latch 88 adapted to coact with a catch 89 when dropped as cam 84 rotates, for locking the tray 51 after having been pushed forward in a ready for imprint position as illustrated in FIGURE 2. The catch 89 is adjustable within a cut-out 91 in the tray 51 by means of a screw 92, so that while the tray 51 is locked it will, via angle support 68, maintain the depression of pin 81 of snap-action switch 79 through spring 80, to continuously activate motor 24 and thus the rocking of carriage assembly 31 for accomplishing an imprint from identification token 53, printing plate 54 and date wheel 56 on to document 55. It is noted that cam 84 is so shaped that, in one position after a complete revolution of eccentric shaft 26 or a complete imprinting cycle of carriage assembly 31, it will act upon rod 87 to lift slide 85 and therefore lift latch 88 releasing the tray 51 when the platen carriage 31 has been rocked about eccentric shaft 26 to be in its uppermost position relative to the printing bed. Upon lifting latch 88 from engagement with catch 89, the rewinding of biased spring 66 will force tray 51 outwardly, thus deactivating motor 24 until the tray is again pushed inwardly.

The rocking motion of the carriage assembly 31 as it is driven about the eccentric shaft 26 via drive shaft 25, is clearly shown in the schematic drawing of FIGURE 8 wherein the eccentric shaft is replaced by an equivalent crank, whereby the particle 93 represents the center of the drive shaft 25, particle 94 represents the center of the offset portion of eccentric shaft 26 which portion is driven about drive shaft 25 in a circle denoted by the dashed circle 95, and particle 96 represents the center of the bearing 39 which is fixed to the carriage assembly 31 and guided for vertical sliding movement in the guide member as the carriage assembly 31 is rocked. The particles are connected by linkage members, which when driven around one complete revolution of circle 95 will denote the various positions of the platen 35 relative to a printing bed 97. It will be observed that in the present embodiment only one quarter of a complete revolution of eccentric shaft 26 is'employed for performing an imprint whereby the platen 35 contacts the document and identification token on printing bed 97. It has been found in practice, that it is desirable to achieve as true a rolling action as possible, and thus fixed bearing 39 may be easily positioned to achieve such an elfect.

It has further been found that instead of laboriously determining the curve of the platen by mathematical formulas in the conventional manner, a new method has been discovered to obtain the desired curvature on the platen for subsequent mass reproduction of curved platens. To perform the method, the fixed bearing is first, by predetermined intensive experimentation, located at a point vertically dispaced from the to-be-cut curved surface, then the platen, originally in block form, is by increments rocked about the eccentric shaft 25 to be driven by the motion described with reference to FIGURE 8 while a cutting mechanism (not shown) is provided approximately in place of the plane of the document to lie on the printing bed 97. Thus as the platen 35 in block form is incrementally driven about the printing bed a curved surface 38 below bearing 39 is generated on the platen 35 by the cutting mechanism continuously oscillating across the approximate plane determined by the document. The displacement of the bearing 39 from the cutting surface is positioned to achieve as true a rolling action as may be obtained. It is noted that the further the center of bearing 39 is vertically raised from the platen surface 38, the greater will become the line contact between the surface 38 and any predetermined fixed distance on the printing bed 97, thereby increasing the amount of skidding during contact which skidding has been generally found to be, in conventional practice, an undesirable element.

In operation of the above described device, an identification token will be inserted on anvil 52 and thereafter a document will be placed upon the tray surface while the tray is in an open position as disclosed in FIGURE 1. Then, the tray 51 will be pushed inwardly against wound spring 66 until the tray is forced against spring to depress pin 81 thus activating the motor 24 which drives the eccentric shaft 26. As the eccentric shaft 26 is rotated, pear-shaped cam 84 will be displaced from its position shown in FIGURE 6, thereby allowing latch 88 to be dropped for engagement with catch 89, as illustrated in FIGURE 2, to hold the tray 51 inwardly against motor activating pin 81 and simultaneously maintaining the print ing bed in alignment for imprinting upon document 55 by carriage assembly 31. As the carriage assembly is directed in the clockwise direction, platen 35 is brought into a rocking type engagement with the sales slip 55 on the printing bed to produce an optimum quality imprint transfer on to the sales slip 55 from identification token 53;

Upon completion of one revolution of the eccentric shaft 26 and after the accomplishment of an imprint, the pearshaped cam 84 will raise latch 88 as shown in FIGURE 6 allowing the force of wound spring 66 to force the tray 51 outwardly for document removal and deactivation of motor 24. While tray 51 is in its document receiving position motor 24 is deactivated, the guide member 45 may be loosened by means of screw 47 and thus lowered away from bearing 39. Thereby, due to the unique construction and arrangement, one may manually rotate the carriage assembly 31 about eccentric shaft 26, as shown in FIGURE 4, for easy and quick cleaning or replacement of the platen 35.

Although the present embodiment discloses tray 51 which is slide-able with respect to the base 21 and therefore the carriage assembly 31, it will be understood, of course, that the printing device is not limited to use with a moveable tray and may, by simple modification of the electric initiator switch, be utilized independently of the same or with a fixed tray mechanism. For example, the snap-action switch 79, illustrated in FIGURE 7, may be connected in push button form to the outer side of wall 22 to underlie the slide 85, which slide, once the push button is depressed, will be acted upon by pearshaped cam 84 to activate and deactivate snap-action switch 79 by respectively depressing and relieving spring member 80, in the manner heretofore described.

FIGURES 9-11 illustrate an additional feature which may be utilized to improve the present invention, wherein a carriage assembly necessary to cover the width of the printing area, such as that shown on the identification token 101 in FIGURE 11, is divided into two sections 102 and 103, each section respectively accounting for portions 104, and 105 of identification token 101. It is evident that the maximum load on the platen of the rocking carriage assembly is in proportion to the printing area; for example, a four line imprint requires twice as much energy as that employed in producing a two line imprint. It is also noted that the actual imprinting portion of a complete imprinting cycle (a three hundred sixty degree revolution of the eccentric shaft 106) only takes approximately one quarter of the imprinting cycle. Thus if the carriage assembly should be split in two sections as disclosed, and the sections 102, 103 were to be displaced by at least ninety degrees, then the maximum load on the platen of the carriage assembly can be reduced by half.

In FIGURE 12 there is shown yet another feature which may be employed to further improve the present invention, wherein two carriage assemblies 107, 108 are placed end to end over an elongated sales slip 109, each carriage to be driven by a common drive shaft 111 being connected to gears 112 and 113 of respective carriage assemblies 107, 108. By using a pair of carriage assemblies as illustrated in FIGURE 12 the length of the printing bed may be increased while avoiding the undesirable efiect of greatly increasing a single carriage assembly.

Furthermore, although the above printing mechanism is shown to be utilized with a power unit 24, it may be readily operated manually by simply providing an operating handle 98 for attachment to the bolt terminal end of the eccentric shaft 26 as shown in FIGURE 4.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that numerous modifications or alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention; it is desired therefore, that only such limitations be placed on the invention as are imposed by the prior art and as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for printing documents and the like, comprising a member forming a printing bed, means for holding on said printing bed a printing plate having data in the form of raised type thereon, a carriage assembly comprising a platen having a curved surface for imprintto distances adjacent to and spaced away from said printing bed, and means for disengaging .said guide member from the pivot means when the platen is spaced away from the printing bed allowing the carriage assembly to be rotatably swung about the eccentric means for maintenance on the platen comprising cleaning or changing of the platen.

2. In apparatus for printing documents and the like, the combination recited in claim 1 including means for allowing slideable removement of said platen from the carriage assembly.

3. Apparatus for printing documents and the like, comprising a member forming a printing bed, means for holding on said printing bed a printing plate having data in the form of raised type thereon, a carriage assembly comprising a platen having a curved surface for imprinting such data on a document interposed between the bed and the carriage assembly, pivot means secured to said carriage and vertically displaced from said imprinting surface, inhibiting means for locking and guiding said pivot means in a path perpendicular to said printing bed, eccentric means for directing said surface into rocking contact with a document on the printing bed, and means for driving said eccentric means, said carriage assembly being split lengthwise, each part of the carriage assembly being displaced about the eccentric means at an angle which is equal to or greater than an angle of the eccentric means utilized during an actual imprint time.

4. Apparatus for printing documents and the like, comprising a tray forming a printing bed, means for holding on said printing bed a printing plate having data in the form of raised type thereon, a carriage assembly comprising a platen having a curved surface for imprinting such data on a document interposed between the bed and the carriage assembly, a base, means for supporting said carriage assembly on said base, means for allowing for movement of said tray in said base, pivot means fixedly secured to said carriage assembly, guide means for guiding said pivot means in a path perpendicular to said printing bed and preventing lateral movement of said pivot means, eccentric means for directing said imprinting surface into rocking contact with a document on the printing bed, means for driving said eccentric means, means for activating said driving means, means for releasably locking said tray when the printing bed of the tray is moved to lie under the curved platen to activate said driving means, and means for releasing said tray at the end of one revolution of said eccentric means allowing the tray to be urged automatically away from the carriage assembly to deactivate said driving means.

5. In apparatus for printing documents and the like, the combination recited in claim 4 wherein said activating means comprises a snap-action switch which is engaged by a portion of the tray when in its locked condition.

'6. In apparatus for printing documents and the like, the combination recited in claim 5 including means for normally biasing said tray away from said snap-action switch and the printing bed of the tray away from said carriage assembly.

7. In apparatus for printing documents and the like, the combination recited in claim 4 including means for lowering that portion of the tray holding the printing plate 7 for relieving a jam which might occur during a printing cycle.

8. In apparatus for printing documents and the like, the combination recited in claim 4 wherein said guide means is releasably engaged relative to the base, and including means for temporarily disengaging said guide means from said pivot means to allow lateral movement of the pivot means by manual rotation of said carriage assembly for maintenance on the platen.

9. In apparatus for printing documents :and the like, the combination recited in claim 4 including means for allowing slideable removement of said platen from the carriage assembly.

10. Apparatus for printing documents and the like, comprising :a tray forming a printing bed, means for holding on said printing bed a printing plate having data in the form of raised type thereon, a carriage assembly comprising a platen having a curved surface for imprinting such data on a document interposed between the bed and the carriage assembly, a base, a pair of parallel walls for supporting the carriage assembly, means for allowing slideable movement of said tray in the base relative to said carriage assembly, a bearing fixedly secured to said carriage assembly the center of said bearing being vertically displaced from said curved imprinting surface, a guide member having a groove for guiding said bearing in a path vertical to said printing bed and preventing lateral movement of said bearing, eccentric shaft for directing said imprinting surface into rocking contact with a document on the printing bed, a motor for driving said eccentric shaft, a snap-action switch mounted on said base and connected from a power source and to said motor, actuation of said snap-action switch and thus the motor by a part of the tray when the printing bed of the tray is moved to lie under the carriage assembly, a latch for first automatically locking said tray into engagement with said snap-action switch, cam means acting upon said latch for automatically unlocking said tray from engagement with said snap-action switch at the end of one revolution of said eccentric shaft, spring means for biasing the printing bed portion of said tray :away from the carriage assembly when the tray is unlocked, said guide member being attached to an inner side of at least one of said parallel walls facing the carriage assembly by a screw which extends through the Wall to the outer side thereof, an elongated vertical slot in the wall a portion of which intersects the screw for allowing the screw and guide member to be lowered for temporarily disengaging said guide member from the bearing when in its uppermost position to allow lateral movement of the bearing by manual rotation of said carriage assembly for maintenance of the same.

References Cited by the Examiner ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM MCCARTHY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR PRINTING DOCUMENTS AND THE LIKE, COMPRISING A MEMBER FORMING A PRINTING BED, MEANS FOR HOLDING ON SAID PRINTING BED A PRINTING PLATE HAVING DATA IN THE FORM OF RAISED TYPE THEREON, A CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A PLATEN HAVING A CURVED SURFACE FOR IMPRINTING SUCH DATA ON A DOCUMENT INTERPOSED BETWEEN THE BED AND THE CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY, PIVOT MEANS SECURED TO SAID CARRIAGE A RELEASABLE GUIDE MEMBER FIXED RELATIVE TO SAID PRINTING BED HAVING AN ELONGATED GROOVE FOR GUIDING SAID PIVOT MEANS IN A PATH VERTICAL TO SAID PRINTING BED AND PREVENTING LATERAL MOVEMENT OF SAID PIVOT MEANS, ECCENTRIC MEANS FOR MOUNTING SAID CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY AND DIRECTING SAID SURFACE INTO ROCKING CONTACT AGAINST A DOCUMENT ON THE PRINTING BED, MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID ECCENTRIC MEANS SAID DRIVING MEANS IMPELLING SAID PLATEN TO DISTANCES ADJACENT TO AND SPACED AWAY FROM SAID PRINTING BED, AND MEANS FOR DISENGAGING SAID GUIDE MEMBER FROM THE PIVOT MEANS WHEN THE PLATEN IS SPACED AWAY FROM THE PRINTING BED ALLOWING THE CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY TO BE ROTATABLY SWUNG ABOUT THE ECCENTRIC MEANS FOR MAINTENANCE ON THE PLATEN COMPRISING CLEANING OR CHANGING OF THE PLATEN. 